The following article stresses the real reasons behind such a massive beauty industry. The reasons are economic. The fashion and beauty industries are earning a lot of money on something that is hard to achieve. They are selling dieting pills and anti-aging products to women that are constantly told that being old or overweight is bad and that it has to be reversed.
“It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth anywhere between 40 and 100 billion US dollars a year selling temporary weight loss (90 to 95 % of dieters regain the lost weight).”
The article also mentions the danger of young girls starting at age 5 or 6 being exposed to all this. In this young age they start to think that their bodies are imperfect and develop bad habits, which creates serious problems is their later lives. It also mentions the overall effect of the absurdity of media portraits of beauty standards. It can be found on the following link.
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm